September is National Recovery Month, a time to educate the public about substance use treatment and mental health services that can help people live healthy and rewarding lives. The Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) department at the Division of Children and Family Services provides specialized interventions for families working with the child welfare system when a parent has a diagnosed chemical dependency. 

Amanda struggled with substance abuse for years.  It started with drinking as a teen then evolved to drugs.  The problem persisted as an adult, but she was never able to get clean, even after having six children.  When she gave birth to her seventh baby, he tested positive for cocaine and heroin. 

“I was still using, and I had a moment when I was just clashing with the social worker and the supervisor. We were in a staffing and Ms. Evans pulled me to the side and said, ‘What is it going to take? When are you going to be ready?’”

When the Division of Children and Family Services got involved Amanda’s six older children were able to remain with her husband.  The newborn was moved into a foster care placement, while Amanda got treatment for her addiction.  But this attempt at getting clean was different thanks to a more than 20-year-old program at DCFS called START – Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams – including the support of her family advocate.

The START program receives referrals from hospitals when a pregnant mom tests positive for drugs, or when a new mom and/or baby tests positive at delivery. The START team pairs a Child Protection Specialist with a family advocate.  While the CPS focuses on the safety of the child, the advocate helps the mother with addiction treatment resources and mentors her through the addiction recovery process.

“She was there to help, she never discounted me, she let me know that it was possible,” said Amanda of her advocate Vivette Evans. “She told me just start here, this is where we need to start and I mean, I don’t know, something changed and gave me the strength to just start and make a change …  I truly owe my beginning to her, my sobriety she was a big part of that.”

Since 1997 approximately more than 8,600 parents have been served by the program. In recent years the team has been in high demand due to the opiate epidemic.  This year DCFS has hired additional Family Advocates with funding secured from the Cuyahoga County Opiate Settlement in order to serve more families. Amanda says START changed her life and made life better for her children.

 “This is the first time in my life that I’m okay with me, I’m being the best mother I can be.  I am there for my kids in the morning, I’m there when they get home from school,” said Amanda.  “My kids have stability, they have their mother who is present and always there. I see the change in my kids, I see the happiness, I see that they’re happy to say goodnight mommy I love you and I’m tucking them in … I can actually hold my head high today and it all starts with being clean.”